to Berlin with love.

[runningred]

 From here

Jay opens the door into a quiet back alley that could belong to any city - the lingering scent of garbage and the miss-matched colours where graffiti has been washed off or painted over. In the mid-afternoon chill of early spring, he takes Emcee's hand and leads him out into the street, pocketing the key. The sunlight is thin but warm and picks out the green swell of buds in the branches. The tree lined avenue is quiet this time of day. Not lacking in people but without rush, a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Comments

[i_am_your_host]

"All right," he sighs, nodding. "But thank you, though. All of this is incredibly thorough. I wouldn't know the first thing about getting any of this done."

[runningred]

"Which is a reason to have friends like me." Jay smiles jokingly, gently pulling Emcee to his feet, tucking everything back in the box.

"Now, the rest of the tour!" Two guest bedrooms and a study with a pretty view of the city. An even larger main bathroom. What the Americans might call a den but Jay has set up with a baby grand piano and a wet bar. Boring utility room with washing machine and all that.

And back to the lounge in time for door to buzz as the pizza arrives.

[i_am_your_host]

Yes, yes it is. Emcee smiles at that, because it's true.

The rest of the tour is, of course, punctuated with gasps of awe and Oh my gods. ("Oh, it's a party bathroom," he chirps at the sight of the main bathroom. He's thinking ahead here.)

After figuring out how to buzz the delivery guy in with the intercom, Emcee digs out enough money out of the wallet, rounding up for a tip. It's strange to not be using German marks, but well, euros are very pretty and colorful, they have that going for them.

Emcee opens the door, trying not to seem too excited about receiving his first pizza. The delivery guy is cute and friendly, and the transaction goes smoothly if a bit flirtatiously because Emcee can't help it.

He brings the box to the kitchen and sets it down on the counter. It smells delicious, unlike anything he's smelled before, and when he lifts the lid, he inhales deeply.

"This is the most artfully beautiful food I've ever seen."

[runningred]

Jay hangs back, letting Emcee find his feet. (And very carefully doesn't laugh at the flirting with the pizza boy.)

Jay grins and pours them more drinks. "All that time in the bar and no-one introduced you to pizza?" He steals a slice, trailing cheese.

[i_am_your_host]

"No," he chuckles, as he gets comfortable on a stool. "I suppose that is a grievous failure on my friends' part."

He watches Jay take a slice, and does the same. For a moment he had expected him to use a knife and fork, but Emcee can do eating with his hands. The crust is just crisp enough, the cheese perfectly melted, and the other toppings round out the overall flavor.

"Mmmpf, this is marvelous. Is this a very popular dish?"

This particular pizza is a little high-end, to say the least, compared to the $1 slices one can get in New York City. Someone will have to introduce him to that kind back at the bar.

[runningred]

"Yeah, that's sadly true. Your friends are utter failures. Me included. All I've managed to introduce you to is top shelf gin."

Jay chuckles, munching on an olive that tried to escape. "In America, certainly but this is much better than average American pizza. No-one does it better than the Italians but then they claim to have invented it.

[i_am_your_host]

"Ah, now that was a very important introduction! I would never have gotten along without it," he insists with a laugh, stretching a bite of mozzarella cheese that refuses to break.

"So, an Italian dish is one of the most widely eaten in America. I think that's wonderful. I think it's wonderful that anybody can get any sort of food they want from almost every country. I saw some of those menus-- Indian? Ethiopian? Thai? That's unheard of in my time. The most foreign food we can get in Berlin is probably chop suey."

[runningred]

"For a friendship that started with sex before exchanging names, we've done alright." Jay chuckles.

"Love Ethiopian, the spices are so rich. South American's popular in Europe at the moment. Proper Mexican, not the American knock off stuff."

[i_am_your_host]

"Mm, indeed we have," he agrees with a grin and a twinkle in his eyes.

He then hops off the stool to tear some paper towels off the roll by the kitchen sink, and hands one of them to Jay. Eating pizza is a greasy business.

"I would love to try all of that, eventually. It's nice that we can get it at Milliways, but going to restaurants to experience the food would be much more enjoyable." He pops a stray olive into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully as he realizes he can do that. Here. Now.

"Speaking of Milliways, I should be able to find a door there from here, shouldn't I?"

[runningred]

"The bar's great but for me, it's the personality of little restaurants. Especially little family run ethnic restaurants. There's something loving that carries into the food."

Jay nods and wipes his hands, fishing the key out of his pocket. "Key to the apartment." he holds it up then flips to the little key fop, a silver oval set with a green and blue glass swirl. "Made from sand from the Caribbean Inlet. I'm told it will act as a door opener for Milliways."

[i_am_your_host]

He nods with a hum of agreement as he chews, thinking of the little mom-and-pop cafés in his neighborhood back home.

Reaching out to take the key, he examines it and runs the pad of his thumb over the oval of pretty glass.

"And if I use this key at Milliways, it will always bring me here? I don't think I've ever heard of someone using something to be brought to a world that wasn't their own."

[runningred]

"Once you accept that key, you own property here. You become a denizen of this world and this time. Kinda like having dual citizenship. The key will just identify to the door which place you want to be in."

The glass insert has a slightly concave surface and warms to the touch. Very tactile.

[i_am_your_host]

His eyebrows rise a little as he looks down at the key in his hand. It suddenly has a great weight to it. The weight of a whole new life.

"Dual citizenship," he murmurs thoughtfully. "So, I could still return to my own time if I wanted to? Like go back and forth between the two worlds, through Milliways?"

[runningred]

"That's the idea. You don't have to give up your world to be here. But you have the option of coming here whenever you wish."

[i_am_your_host]

After a few more moments of staring at it, and toying with it a little as if getting used to the feel of it in his hand, he holds it back out to Jay.

"Keep it safe for me. Please. Until it's time for us to go back. I don't want to lose it."

It's not a yes or a no yet.

[runningred]

Jay nods without pressing and tucks the key into a pocket.

He takes another slice and munches happily. "I don't think I realised how hungry I was. Good call on the pizza."

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee finishes off his own slice and also takes another.

"Well, I don't often think with my stomach, but it's been a long day, and we still have a party to go to," he says, picking excess mushrooms and olives off his slice carpooling them into his mouth.

"I'm actually looking forward to that. I think it will be a good way to end this trip."

[runningred]

"I'm looking forward to it too. I haven't been to a party in a long time. Not where I wasn't working in some form or another."

[i_am_your_host]

"You were at my New Year's Eve party," Emcee says, poking him in the shoulder.

"But yes, ditto. I always seem to be the one hosting them, never a guest. I like hosting, but it will be a nice change."

He looks around the room.

"I'm trying to imagine the kinds of parties I could throw here."

[ooc: wtf autocorrect. *popping them into his mouth]

[runningred]

"I was too." he nods. "Seems like ages ago now."

He smiles softly and cocks his head. "No, I haven't thought about the sort of parties you could throw here. And I certainly didn't make sure the doorways are big enough to move the piano from one room to another."

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee looks back at him. He opens his mouth and closes it again, giving him a what are you saying expression.

"Wait. You mean--"

And he snorts a chuckle, shaking his head.

Jay really has thought of everything.

"You just want to be invited to every party I throw. And you are."

[runningred]

"I live to please." He grins playfully.

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee just smirks at him, and takes a sip of gin to cleanse his palate.

He slips off his stool, glass in hand.

"If you don't mind, I think I'm just going to wander around for a bit."

[runningred]

Jay smiles and brushes his hand over Emcee's sleeve. "It's your house, darling. I'll be on the balcony when you want me."

He grabs a couple of smokes and heads outside.

[i_am_your_host]

It's your house

Emcee turns warm at that, and at his touch, and he smiles in return before Jay heads out onto the balcony.

He lingers for a bit, sipping his drink and casting his gaze around the spacious lounge. And then, just to make it look a little more lived-in, he drapes his coat over a chair and kicks off his boots.

So there.

The bare floor is cool under his feet. He pads around, peering at the complicated-looking stereo system and the big, blank, flat screen that resembles the one above the bar in Milliways.

He opens the huge, shiny icebox. No, refrigerator. There's beer and Coca-Cola but not much else that's perishable, but the freezer is stocked with meals that will cook themselves in the microwave. He thinks this is amazing.

He then wanders into the room with the piano and the bar. It's so surreal, to think that this would be his. It's like something out of a Hollywood film. He runs his fingertips along the edge of the shiny, art deco style countertop. And then over the closed lid of the baby grand. He lifts it carefully. The keys are so perfect and pristine that he can't bear to touch them.

But he does. Just the middle C. It makes a beautiful sound.

He shuts the lid and perches on the edge of the bench, facing the room. He's trying to imagine it filled with people. With friends. Drinking, laughing, singing. But his friends are not here.

The guest rooms make him seriously think about who he can save. Who might believe him and come with him.

Then, the master bedroom. His lips twitch in spite of himself when he thinks the bed isn't big enough.

He opens the doors to the balcony. Again, very surreal, the stuff of movies. He steps out and softly closes the doors behind him, and pads over to where Jay is.

"I think I need another cigarette," he sighs.